README

Path: README
Last Update: Sat Mar 03 13:43:15 CET 2007

Rack, a modular Ruby webserver interface

Rack provides minimal, modular and adaptable interface for developing web applications in Ruby. By wrapping HTTP requests and responses in the simplest way possible, it unifies and distills the API for web servers, web frameworks, and software in between (the so-called middleware) into a single method call.

The exact details of this are described in the Rack specification, which all Rack applications should conform to.

Supported web servers

The included handlers connect all kinds of web servers to Rack:

  • Mongrel
  • WEBrick
  • FCGI
  • CGI

Any valid Rack app will run the same on all these handlers, without changing anything.

Supported web frameworks

The included adapters connect Rack with existing Ruby web frameworks:

  • Camping
  • Rails (alpha)
  • more to come soon, …

These frameworks include Rack adapters in their distributions:

  • Ramaze
  • Maveric
  • Racktools::SimpleApplication

Available middleware

Between the server and the framework, Rack can be customized to your applications needs using middleware, for example:

  • Rack::URLMap, to route to multiple applications inside the same process.
  • Rack::CommonLogger, for creating Apache-style logfiles.
  • Rack::ShowException, for catching unhandled exceptions and presenting them in a nice and helpful way with clickable backtrace.
  • Rack::File, for serving static files.

All these components use the same interface, which is described in detail in the Rack specification. You can choose to use them exactly in the way you want.

Convenience

If you want to develop outside of existing frameworks, implement your own ones, or develop middleware, Rack provides many helpers to create Rack applications quickly and without doing the same web stuff all over:

rackup

rackup is a useful tool for running Rack applications, which uses the Rack::Builder DSL to configure middleware and build up applications easily.

rackup automatically figures out the environment it is run in, and runs your application as FastCGI, CGI, or standalone with Mongrel or WEBrick—all from the same configuration.

Quick start

Try the lobster!

Either with the embedded WEBrick starter:

  ruby -Ilib lib/rack/lobster.rb

Or with rackup:

  bin/rackup -Ilib example/lobster.ru

By default, the lobster is found at localhost:9292.

Installing with RubyGems

A Gem of Rack is available. You can install it with:

    gem install rack

I also provide a local mirror of the gems (and development snapshots) at my site:

    gem install rack --source http://chneukirchen.org/releases/gems

History

  • March 3rd, 2007: First public release 0.1.

Contact

Please mail bugs, suggestions and patches to <chneukirchen@gmail.com>.

Darcs repository ("darcs send" is welcome for patches): chneukirchen.org/repos/rack

You are also welcome to join the rack channel on irc.freenode.net.

Thanks to

  • Michael Fellinger, for the helpful discussion.
  • Christoffer Sawicki, for the Rails adapter.
  • Armin Ronacher, for the logo and racktools.
  • Alexander Kellett for testing the Gem and reviewing the announce.
  • Marcus Rückert, for help with configuring and debugging lighttpd.
  • The WSGI team for the well-done and documented work they’ve done and Rack builds up on.

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2007 Christian Neukirchen <purl.org/net/chneukirchen>

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Links

Rack:<rack.rubyforge.org/>
Rack’s Rubyforge project:<rubyforge.org/projects/rack>
Camping:<camping.rubyforge.org/>
Ramaze:<ramaze.rubyforge.org/>
Maveric:<maveric.rubyforge.org/>
racktools:<lucumr.pocoo.org/trac/repos/racktools/>
Christian Neukirchen:<chneukirchen.org/>

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